Save a Tree: Put Your Receipt on the Web

Ever get an email that has a signature line that says "Please consider the environment before printing this email?" Starting on May 16th, you can save a few trees by using allEtronic and rejecting paper receipts when you check out at big box stores like Best Buy and Target.

According to allEtronic's About page:

allEtronic is a means for retail businesses to electronically deliver paperless receipts and coupons to their customers. Businesses who integrate into our systems not only reduce their overall cost of receipt paper and coupon delivery, they also help reduce the negative impact paper production is having on our environment. Consumers who use allEtronic are utilizing a service that simplifies the way they receive, track, store and view their receipts.

allEtronic is an add-on product for digital cash registers. Once a consumer signs up, when allEtronic customer's credit card at a participating retailer, it blocks the receipt-printing process, sending the details of the transaction to its servers.

Consumers can visit allEtronic's Web site to view and export receipts.

Of course, the one drawback was demonstrated today, when I walked out of target, realized I had been double-charged for an item, and could walk back in with my paper receipt to get a refund. Otherwise, I would have had to go home, print it out, and come back.

However, it might be worth the trouble. As allEtronic notes on its web site:

In the year 2000, paper producing companies made 26,935,000 tons of paper. In doing so, they cut down and destroyed nearly 397,809,231 trees.

allEtronic has the capacity to eliminate 100% of receipt paper production, but we need your help. By using allEtronic, you’ll be helping save approximately 9 million trees each year by using our service.

You can already sign up (I did), but you can't log back in to set up your account yet. Expect that to change on May 16th.